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Acapulco, Mexico

Acapulco is the major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, it features a tropical wet and dry climate . The city is also Mexico's largest beach resort city with a population of almost 900,000 citizens. Acapulco came into distinction in the 1960s as a getaway for many Hollywood stars, politicians, and millionaires that visited the city for its beauty, nightlife, and nature.

According to the distribution of the population for the year 2018, the bulk of the population is concentrated in the age group between 15 and 29 years old, which stands for the 25%, so that our municipality is constituted by young people. The economic specialization in Acapulco corresponds to temporary accommodation services, preparation of food and beverages.

Unfortunately, the city has been experiencing an upsurge in gang violence and murder. However, the current municipal administration together with the federal government is making remarkable efforts to overcome this situation by providing better opportunities for its citizens.  For this reason, the municipality has forged celebratory campaigns to encourage respect for the environment, especially with regard to the beaches. The administration's objective is to consolidate diversified and sustainable tourism where also cultural and artistic fairs are promoted. With this, it is intended to rethink tourism and update the municipality to new national and international trends.

Through strategic alliances with stakeholders, we will strengthen the promotion of cultural and training activities so that citizens can achieve their goals fully and in an environment of social peace. Along with enhancing access to educational activities in Acapulco to reduce illiteracy and educational backwardness, the objective is also to motivate our main economic activity to prevent the increase in violence, which is mainly caused by poverty, marginalization, unemployment, family disintegration and the loss of universal values. In Acapulco, we fully believe that, by living in a city with opportunities for development and training throughout life, an environment of prosperity and peace will be generated for all. In this sense, our municipality has collaborated with the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom to carry out an academic study on the role of education and culture to tackle the increase of urban violence. We believe that this project has the potential to lay the foundations for the construction of an effective and successful Learning City.

Formal and Non-formal Learning Infra-structure

The formal learning infrastructure that operates in Acapulco is coordinated by either the federal government or the state government of Guerrero. The municipality itself has limited action in the provision of educational services in Acapulco but it does participate and encourage a variety of activities that take place within schools and colleges. For example, there is much coordination between the Secretary of Education of Guerrero and the municipality for the development of educational programs for peace, civics, and ethics; driver's education and simple rules for living together.

Specifically, a permanent campaign has been launched to disseminate sports and cultural activities in the municipality so that people can participate. In the same way, the cultural infrastructure in Acapulco will be strengthened. We currently have 48 libraries, an Art Initiation School in agreement with the National Institute of Fine Arts, 7 Cultural Centres, gardens, and municipal parks, such as the Papagayo Park, the Veladero or the Queen’s Park. In addition to this, we have 5 beaches with International Recognition "Blue Flag". All this infrastructure will be used to relaunch the spirit of the Acapulco people to become a City of Learning with prosperity and an environment of social peace.

Learning City Developments

Our goal is to set the foundations for a better Acapulco with sustainable development and enduring impact for its citizens. For this reason, attention has been given to marginalized areas and vulnerable groups that have not had the same opportunities. With a gender equity perspective and with the aim of empowering young people, currently 31% of public schools register students benefiting from economic scholarships, particularly benefiting girls and young people in a context of aggravated vulnerability. In addition to this, the main attention is given to highlighting the multicultural setting in the municipality, because in our municipality there are 16,724 people who speak some indigenous language, especially of the Nahuatl, Mixtec, Tlapaneca, and Amuzga ethnic groups.

We launched the Forum called "Transforming Acapulco" with the objective to capture the vision of different actors and social sectors that shared ideas and proposals for the construction of a renewed Acapulco. These manifestations are reflected in the Municipal Development Plan, which in turn has a vision of inclusiveness and participation of vulnerable and marginalized groups, as well as the priority of empowering citizens. Specific actions are:

1. Create a peacebuilding council to validate the proposals and measure indicators;
2. Implement the Citizen Participation and Consultation Committee, which is made up of members of civil society organizations;
3. Develop the Civil Society Directory;
4. Organize the Neighbourhood and Citizen Committees with indigenous and Afro-descendant populations;
5. Promote citizen empowerment through the establishment of citizen assemblies;
6. Link the Municipality with international organizations and cities, both national and from other countries that could trigger actions and programs for the benefit of Acapulco.

In order to improve educational services, we have been launching projects and literacy campaigns, jobs, and technical training. Likewise, to provide learning, cultural, and recreational opportunities, specific resources have been allocated to rescue public spaces. In addition to this, citizen consultations, forums, surveys, and public hearings are constantly carried out to give voice to the most vulnerable population and facilitate their participation in decision-making processes.

Some Key Activities in the Learning Cities field

Acapulco has historically been a place where life is celebrated and people share their kindness and joy with tourists who visit our port from different parts of the country and the world. An example is the La Nao Acapulco International Festival, which commemorates the first historical trip that united Asia and America in 1565, thus showcasing our work to maintain Acapulco's multicultural spirit to revitalize its culture.

Apart from the happiness of its people, Acapulco's biggest challenge is ensuring safe environments to eradicate violence, which in recent years has been aggravated by a lack of political will, but so is the absence of better opportunities for personal development. In this sense, the implementation of educational programs for peace with a civic and ethical vision has been coordinated with the Secretary of Education of the state of Guerrero, which includes the promotion of simple rules for living together and cultural and sporting activities to strengthen social cohesion.

In the following link, some of the activities promoted by the municipality are being posted. https://acapulco.gob.mx/eventos/

Priority Areas for Future Development

In order to eradicate urban violence, we launched the social movement called “All together for Peace”, which invites all sectors in society to participate to build an active citizenship based on the promotion of a culture of legality, the foundation of peaceful and happy territories, where we recognize all the existing cultural expressions in the municipality. One of the goals is also to be able to change the face of Acapulco and transform it into a tourist destination of international reference. These strategies have the participation of citizens and the different sectors present in Acapulco, which will allow us to successfully build a Learning City.

Just as the Peace Building Council exists, we have planned the creation of the Learning City Committee, that will have the participation of municipal government agencies, actors from civil society, local educational organizations and anyone interested in contributing and sharing experiences for an Acapulco with opportunities for all. The Learning City Committee will determine what strategies need to be strengthened in Acapulco based on the most urged learning and training needs that exist in the city. In addition to this, it will define and monitor the indicators and the involvement of the actors who wish to be involved in this initiative. Activities that will be constantly reported to the citizens. The success of the strategy lies in linking local productive capacities with educational improvement programs, targeting projects and campaigns for literacy, job training, or vocational and technical training, in order to promote economic growth and employment in the municipality.